Delray Sets Flow Of Traffic Upgrade

2 Downtown Streets To Become Two-way

Construction has started to convert one-way Northeast and Southeast First streets to two-way in downtown Delray Beach.

Meant to ease traffic flow and give shoppers easier access to shops, the project also could help prevent accidents at Northeast First Street and Northeast Second Avenue.

Northeast and Southeast First streets run parallel to Atlantic Avenue of the busy thoroughfare. They will accommodate two-way traffic by this summer, according to Randal Krejcarek, Delray Beach city engineer.

"We're trying to make it more convenient for travelers going east and west," Krejcarek said.

The project includes putting in an underground water main from Northeast Fourth Avenue to Northeast Sixth Avenue, creating additional street-side parallel parking, and resurfacing and repainting the road from Swinton Avenue to Northeast Sixth Avenue. New signs will be posted, and landscaping will be planted with drainage, Krejcarek said.

The city is providing the engineering and construction management, and Palm Beach County will convert the traffic signals along the route, he said.

The conversion, paid for by the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, is part of the Downtown Master Plan. The conversion project, in the works since 2002, should be done by June and will cost $782,000, according to Krejcarek.

"The one-way traffic flow on the street has always been a problem for businesses," said Diane Colonna, executive director of the CRA. "It makes it hard when someone has to go around a block to get to your business."

The change may come too late for some business owners along Northeast First Street. Janice Vaccaro owns Costin's Trellis Garden, originally at 126 NE First St. She had to move to 257 NE Second Ave. to make room for the Old School Square parking garage.

"I wish they had done it a long time ago," Vaccaro said. "People have to go all the way to Second Avenue to turn around and come back. [A two-way street] makes it easier for people to get to my shop."

Colonna and Krejcarek couldn't pinpoint the year, but they think it was the late 1980s when Northeast and Southeast First streets were converted from two-way to one-way, they said, during the beautification of Atlantic Avenue when landscaping and street parking were added.

In addition to easing traffic flow and making merchants more accessible, many residents are welcoming the current conversion as a way to improve safety.

Rick Selleck, project manager at Meisner Electric Inc. at 220 NE First St., said he sees people driving the wrong way down the street almost every day.

"I've seen six accidents in the last two months," Selleck said about the intersection at Northeast First Street and Northeast Second Avenue.

Tony Johnson spends a lot of time outside near the intersections along Northeast First Street, maintaining the property for Ocean City Lumber Co.

"Lunch time is when accidents usually happen," Johnson said. "There are no stop signs from east to west; only from north and south. Some people will assume the east and west traffic is stopping, too. You learn to stop either way, because you're not sure what the other person at the intersection is going to do."

The city recorded 12 accidents each year at Northeast First Street and Northeast Second Avenue in 2003 and 2004. Krejcarek blamed the frequent collisions on a site distance issue, which he said has been corrected.

"We restricted the on-street parking, because trucks were parking at the intersection and cars couldn't see beyond the truck," Krejcarek said. "As [the cars] were pulling out, they got hit."

Vaccaro thinks the problem has been a lack of signage, she said.

"You should see the amount of people parked the wrong way on this street who never realize it is a one-way street," Vaccaro said. "In the six years I've been here, there has never been a one-way sign at this intersection, until six weeks ago. So the people coming out of the parking lot had no warning."

Judi Fox, a 10-year Delray Beach resident, welcomes the change as a benefit for safety and traffic.

"Making it two ways will be safer. They all go two ways anyway. Admit that's how people are going to drive," Fox said. "I'm for anything to take the traffic off Atlantic."